In a typical commercial electrical construction application, conduit is installed first within a raceway and the conduit houses and protects the wiring. A component known as a conduit body is used at the junction of two or more conduits to join the conduits together. The conduit body has a removable cover to provide access to the interior. A conduit body that provides for a 90° juncture or bend in the conduit and wiring is known as an L-type conduit body. A conduit body that provides for a juncture of three conduits is known as an T-type conduit body. When the conduit and wiring is diverted through an opening opposite the cover, the conduit body is known as an LB conduit body. When the conduit and wiring is diverted 90° through the left side or the right side of the conduit body, the conduit body is known as an LL or LR type. A conduit body that provides for a juncture of four conduits is known as an X-type conduit body.
Conduit bodies are often used as junction points or pull points. For example, when used as a pull point, the cover is removed from the conduit body and the wire is pulled through one conduit to the entrance opening of the conduit body and out of the top of the conduit body. The wire is coiled on the floor and is then reinserted out through the other opening in the conduit body and pulled. The gasket and cover are then reinstalled.
However, due to the often heavy gauge of the wiring, the wires often become tangled or are difficult to bend in order to fit into the conduit body. Since wiring without a proper junction point is in violation of safety codes for almost all types of construction, the labor intensive work of fitting the wires to the prior art conduit body and junction point is required.
Where an LB type conduit body is involved, the most labor intensive part of fitting the conduit body is the bending of wire/conduit through a sharp 90° turn within the confines of the typical LB box. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a novel, non-obvious and improved conduit body that reduces the amount of such labor-intensive activity.
Multiple conduits are often mounted parallel to, or at least adjacent to, each other and when there is a side conduit from a T-type conduit body there is often a space conflict with the adjacent conduits. To accommodate this type of situation the T-type conduit box with the third branch is first rotated about its longitudinal axis to permit the side conduit to clear the adjacent conduits, and then the side conduit must be bent to pass under or over nearby conduits. This situation also occurs with an L-type conduit body with two pieces of conduit where one of the conduits is parallel or adjacent to other conduits and then there is a ninety-degree for its other piece of conduit. The L-type conduit body must be rotated about one of its two pieces of conduit and its other piece of conduit must be bent to pass under or over nearby conduits. There are many other similar installation examples in which conduit bodies must be rotated and the conduit connected to these conduit bodies must be bent to avoid space conflicts with adjacent conduit.
However, making such bends in conduit is time consuming and electrical codes restrict the number of bends in conduit between pull points. In addition, having to rotate the conduit bodies too often makes it more difficult to handle the wiring being routed through the conduit bodies after removing the top cover of the conduit body.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved conduit body that minimizes or eliminates the need for rotating conduit bodies and eliminates the need for bending of conduit in electrical installations to promote faster and easier installation of conduit bodies, conduit and wiring.